With almost four minutes left, fans began slowly filing out of Rupp Arena.
No more hope. No more New York. Maybe no more honeymoon for new Kentucky Coach Billy Gillispie.
Gardner-Webb, a school in Boiling Springs, N.C., with an enrollment of 4,000, thoroughly outplayed UK. The Runnin’ Bulldogs never trailed in winning and denying Kentucky a much-coveted trip to New York City next week for the 2K Sports College Hoops Classic semifinals and finals.
The outcome may have shocked UK fans, who vented their frustration by booing more than once. But it shouldn’t have. Gillispie all but predicted this would happen the night before.
After UK beat Central Arkansas in Tuesday’s first round, he bemoaned the performance and held out Gardner-Webb as the kind of team — emphasis on TEAM — that could expose the Cats.
As if to prove Gillispie a prophet, both teams played exactly those roles for much of the game.
Gardner-Webb scored the game’s first 14 points, led by as much as 16 and took a 38-27 lead at intermission.
The Runnin’ (and thinkin’) Bulldogs played with one purpose and repeatedly got good scoring opportunities.
Backdoor cuts nullified UK’s pressure defense. Plain scrappiness netted other scoreboard rewards.
At times, the Cats looked like the same disjointed team that so frustrated former coach Tubby Smith and the fans in recent seasons.
Gardner-Webb took immediate charge of the game. Grayson Flittner, a 6-foot native of Sharpsville, Ind., who walked on the Gardner-Webb team because his girlfriend played on the women’s team, scored 22 points. He hit a pair of three-pointers in the 14-0 run.
Thomas Sanders, who was home schooled until college and came to Gardner-Webb through an “Availables Game” designated for unsigned junior college players, added 21 points and 10 rebounds.
Kentucky responded with too many solo flights of fancy. None were more ugly than Joe Crawford’s leaning, one-hand flip shot that evoked thoughts of a YMCA pickup game. The air ball was a far cry from Crawford’s 20-point performance off the bench against Central Arkansas.
The Cats repeatedly forced first-half shots. Even when the effort produced a shot near the basket, UK couldn’t convert. Mark Coury, Ramel Bradley and Jodie Meeks all missed layups in traffic. Bradley, who made four of 11 shots and all 14 of his free throws, led UK with 24 points.
Even when UK tried to coordinate its approach, the result failed. Perry Stevenson threw a high-low pass to Patrick Patterson that banged off the backboard. Gardner-Webb scooped up the loose ball and zipped to a fastbreak layup. It was the second straight fastbreak (the first created by Bradley’s forced shot on the drive) that stalled a UK rally that reduced the deficit to 28-21.
Two possessions later, Gardner-Webb deflected and retrieved a Patterson high-low pass for Stevenson. That caused a UK fan to yell, “C’mon Patrick, dumb pass.”
Despite itself, Kentucky got within 34-27 with two minutes left. Patterson’s putback of an ill-advised Stevenson shot from the top of the key got the Cats within seven.
Then Aaron Linn, Gardner-Webb’s leading scorer (24 points) against Alabama A&M, drove to baskets over Meeks. The second, a fall-away shot from the baseline at the buzzer, set the halftime score and the boobirds
were free to express themselves.
The second half failed to bring immediate relief. Gardner-Webb beat Bradley and Crawford on backdoor cuts for layups.
When Bradley responded by launching a quick three-pointer that missed, Gillispie leaned back in his seat and put his hands behind his head. His body language suggested he’d left the building.
Kentucky gave the crowd a belief in a comeback when Patterson took Bradley’s inbounds and dunked. That reduced the deficit to 44-31 with 17:40 left. The crowd roared.
But Crawford missed a three. Patterson missed a foul-line jumper when the time and score suggested a low-post power move (although Gardner-Webb crowded around Patterson when he was in the post).
Left alone, Nate Blank swished a three-pointer to halt the rally.
When Gardner-Webb ripped a rebound from Stevenson and zipped to a fastbreak layup, the lead reached its zenith, 49-31, with 15:07 left. More boos could be heard.
Freshman Alex Legion gave Kentucky renewed hope midway through the half. He hit three straight three-point shots.
The Cats closed within 58-50 when Bradley hit two free throws at the 7:48 mark. Plenty of time to complete the comeback.
But as if poetic justice, UK missed its next four shots. Gardner-Webb used a pretty play — Linn’s touch-pass to Flittner open at the three-point line — that resulted in a three-pointer that began a 9-1 counter that decided the game.
For UK fans with a good memory, it was familiar. In 1991, another relatively new UK coach, Rick Pitino, expected to take the Cats to the Pre-Season NIT semifinals in New York. But Pittsburgh sprung the upset that night.
Jerry Tipton of the Lexington Herald- Leader has covered Kentucky basketball since the 1981-82 season. That time includes five coaches, five Final Fours, four athletic directors, two interim athletic directors and many memories. Before coming to Lexington, Tipton worked eight years for the Huntington (W.Va.) Herald-Dispatch. He covered Marshall’s basketball team for two seasons before coming to the Herald-Leader.
All I have to say is. ” Are you happy, Tubby-bashers? You got what you wanted.”
thoughts:
ramel bradley is not a lead-guard or point-guard or any kind of guard that has to run an offense.
joe crawford continues to come and go as he pleases on a basketball court. consistency, thy name is NOT joe crawford.
where’s jodie meeks?
i would absolutely love to have a player that can consistently make an entry pass into the post.
is there any positive — besides alex legion — that can be taken from this game?
I don’t think you can put Pittsburgh in the same class as Gardner-Webb. Even in 1991 Pitt played in the Big East and was a Major college program. I doubt Pitt was a 25 point underdog in that game.
This is not acceptable. excusing this loss with comments like it happened to Pitino’s Team is just plain wrong. The 1991 cats didn’t have the talent this team has. Tubby wouldn’t have allowed this debacle. Yet Billy Slide did. what is it that Billy sees in Bradley, Tubby knew he wasn’t a point guard and I sure as heck can’t see any discipline in his game that would lead me to believe he is a lead guard. Anytime he has been the “lead” guard UK has looked out of synch and selfish, there is a reason that Jasper started last year as a freshmen point guard. Bradley doesn’t have the game…. Billy Slide is the wrong man at the Wrong Time. This seems Like Eddie Sutton all over again. The silver lining is Billy Slide will as he always does slide out of town sooner rather than latter.
I have been a Kentucky fan for years and this was the worst I have ever seen a Kentucky team play. The fundamentals of basketball were not utilized. The TV analyst had talked about all the time the Kentucky coaching staff had spent concentrating on defense; talk about time poorly spent. Let the coaching staff and team review the game tape if only to see how to play basketball as a team. Kentucky has the talent and tradition. Let’s put this embarrassing loss behind us, concentrate on each opponent, work on playing as a TEAM and have an excellent season.
well said…i been a uk fan since 1958 and this is the worst
i ever saw them play..
Sorry for all of you who still thinks Tubby was or could ever be a key to the future of UK basketball. There are ups and downs in business and even in college sports, and Tubby just so happened to be our down cycle. I, for one, will enthusiastically embrace the humor, candid honesty and drive that Billy G brings to UK at a time that this program desperately needs it. We got our ass whipped by a sub-par team. Well, for 8 years, UK, the pre-eminent program was handed its lunch by the nationally ranked teams we ALL thought we had the right to beat. Tubby’s dislike for the media, the fan base and the weight of the program that paid him over 2M, saw him dissolve the meteoric rise attained by Rick(screw him) P. Tubby was not the man, Billy G hopefully will be.
With regard to all of the controversy discussed on the discussion site, an informal survey is called for… If the monumental loss to a team like GW can be blamed on extraneous causes (i.e. Tubby’s recruits, poor conditioning, lack of practice time before the season, etc.), would KY fans be willing to accept a first season with a 50/50 win/loss percentage from Billy Clyde?
By the way, if the items listed above are extraneous factors, what exactly are the “real” factors? Maybe we should focus on things we can change, not on the things that we have no control over. The players are the players for better or worse. The practice time before the season was as much (or as little) as it was. The coach is the coach - no matter what his issues are. All we can do is wait and watch… and hope for the best.
Of course I was disappointed in a loss to GW but we really have to look at this one game at a time. I had rather lose this fame now and it be a learning expereince for conference play. In reality all Nov, and Dec is a warm up for conference play. You know this team will improve and be much better. UK fans take a breath and think about football in Nov for a change.